What If: Code Lyoko
by Darkness1OOO
Summary: What if...? What if certain things happened differently in Code Lyoko? A second too late, a second early, a lack, a present, what if?
1. Round One

_Splitting from the middle of Episode 65, Final Round. What if William wasn't captured?_

* * *

"William? Are you okay?" Aelita had finally reached William after being separated by a sudden wall. William was getting up from the floor, recovering from the scyphozoa. He suddenly turned around, the eye of XANA plainly visible. Aelita immediately backed up, charging up an energy field in each hand. William was able to deflect the first one with his sword, the second one colliding. He fell back to the floor. "Jeremie, we have to devirtualize William," Aelita explained. "A possessed warrior is too much of a threat. We can't afford to risk it." Jeremie briefly thought it over and agreed. "Go ahead Aelita. I'll try and contact Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi again." Aelita charged up another energy field and hurled it toward William as he was recovering, devirtualizing him before any major damage could occur.

William was recreated in the scanners, and exhausted from his first trip. All he remembered being captured by the scyphozoa, and then reappearing in the scanners. Aelita changed direction and headed for the core chamber. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were each able to arrive nearly as Aelita entered the core chamber. By the time she had arrived, Lyoko's core had already lost a shield. There was a massive amount of creepers in the chamber. She began picking them off, one by one, progressing up the spiral. The ones further up continued to fire, no longer in simultaneous fashion. The remaining Lyoko warriors arrived shortly after Aelita was devirtualized, after withstanding several blows from creepers. They followed in Aelita's footsteps, killing off creepers.

Outside, Aelita and William watched over Jeremie's shoulder. The second layer blew, and the creepers were beginning to peck at Lyoko itself, corrupting files. There were simply too many creepers to handle. The program to find Franz Hopper had popped up, distracting them from the health of the core. As the program ran, it was interrupted by a fatal warning: The core of Lyoko had been destroyed. Jeremie began quickly entering the code for devirtualization, as the Lyoko warriors watched the world fall apart from inside. There were small bugs first, collision errors, texture glitching, latency. Followed by more serious errors, such as the sudden absence of anyone's models. Eventually, Lyoko collapsed. the core detonated, like a monster being destroyed. There was a massive surge of energy, and then a massive influx of energy being stripped away. If anyone had been outside of Sector Five they would've seen the outside of Lyoko - the physical membrane separating it from the World Network - Being pulled into the core, as if it were a black hole. The membrane was violently torn apart, a hollow ball collapsing in on itself. The digital sea began gushing in. As the warriors were rematerialized, as XANA called back his monsters, Sector Five ceased to exist, as did Lyoko. The only physical hint that it ever existed being an area in the World Network oddly devoid of architecture.

Franz Hopper was not rematerialized, there was not enough time. William felt awful and guilty, even though his actual involvement was minimal. Anger was briefly taken out on William. He defended himself that he was brought in to a fatal situation on his first trip. Aelita defended him with the fact that she too, fell victim to the scyphozoa, several times. It wasn't his fault. Dispelled of blame, on anyone, they headed to the Hermitage to mourn the presumed death of Franz Hopper. Their mourning was cut short by a message - he was still alive. The fight against XANA would continue, XANA having merely bought time, rather than capturing a very powerful pawn.


	2. The Lock

_Splitting from near the end of The Key, episode 52._

* * *

Ulrich and Aelita climbed up the floating block, quickly recovering to reflect a few lasers. Yumi and Odd were devirtualized while attempting to assist Aelita in her quest for her memory. They updated Jeremie of the situation, who reversely updated them of their situation, "The room's collapsing! Run for it!" They immediately began running for it as the room began collapsing. The creepers on the other side of the gap fell to their death while being crushed, and the warriors ran, the ground all too quickly falling behind them. It caught them.

They fell, not into a digital sea, but to a void - but not before they would be could be saved by two flying mantas - not XANA's either, but another entity - Franz Hopper. XANA immediately made an attempt to trace the source of the energy. He had tried before, when Franz activated a tower, but was caught by surprise, and Franz didn't allow enough time when they were decoding Franz's diary. But he was fully prepared now. He immediately started backtracking the source of the energy, as Franz used it to fly Ulrich to the bottom step, and Aelita to the top step where her fragment of memory lied.

She got off the manta and walked up to the fragment, almost in tears had she been in the real world. She grabbed it and waited. Lines grew across the sphere, and then it abruptly shattered. She was shocked. Outside Lyoko, their smiles suddenly became frowns. The room began to shake, and it collapsed, again, this time taking everything with it. Ulrich watched helplessly as the steps around him collapsed, the manta was crushed, and met his own devirtualization when a block fell on him. Aelita reached out towards her manta, which was immediately sunken by a falling platform.

_**"HELP ME!" **_She screamed to an empty room, devoid of any other life - except perhaps the scyphozoa approaching behind her. Jeremie warned her of its presence, but it was too late - the scyphozoa had her, and _nothing_ would free her now. Jeremie, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich watched helplessly as Aelita's memory was torn from her, her entire essence, all for a few keys. Her memory went from 1600 to 0 within mere seconds, and she fell lifelessly to the ground.

The scyphozoa left. Aelita's memory screen flashed an urgent red with equally urgent noise telling them what they already knew - something was _horribly_ wrong. Jeremie could barely choke out, "Aelita's… d...ea...d…" and the others stood in horror. The chamber darkened, and the darkness grew from the inside of Sector 5 out. The files of the celestial dome began darkening, and the core grew dark from the outside. Then, XANA's reach spread to all of Lyoko. Every tower became instantly activated by XANA. The superscan reacted by immediately popping up multiple times, reporting tens of activated towers. The others were confused, but Jeremie knew exactly what this meant. "X-XANA got what he wanted. He has the keys to Lyoko. He'll be able to get out of the supercomputer…" Indeed, above the factory, the midnight sky was lit and darkened by the energy of a program escaping, the darkness of himself, and the cries of artificial intelligence achieving victory.

Franz Hopper did not come to Aelita's rescue. XANA located him, and forced him out of the supercomputer, locking it on his way out. He would need Lyoko no longer. He was free. And the world was his domain.

The remaining Lyoko warriors could do nothing. The supercomputer wouldn't let them materialize a body without a mind for safety purposes, and it what would they do with a lifeless body anyway? School had ended, temporarily delaying them the need to cover up Aelita's disappearance, but it didn't matter. Aelita was lost. Franz Hopper couldn't save her, Jeremie can't save her, and XANA won't save her. The Lyoko warriors had truly lost, and no amount of friendship would save them.


End file.
